Design and specifications of racing car chassis as passive safety feature

Abstract

This paper reviews the design and test results for the main passive safety feature of Formula-type (Formula Student class) open-wheel racing cars: the tubular spaceframe chassis. Formula Student is an international competition for engineering students and young athletes, who work in teams to design racing cars, assemble them from scratch, and then race them. This paper presents a chassis strength analysis, the results of head-on and lateral crash tests, and torsional stiffness calculations for the chassis of a racing car used by the team representing the Shukhov Belgorod State Technological University, as proof that this particular structural design is safe for future use.